@winter_bloom
STORM
Spending itself against the coast all night / The morning quiet sharper for the contrast
WARM
Welcomes built from simple, honest words / Arms that mean exactly what they say
VALE
Vapour rising from the early morning ground / A bowl the hills have made to hold the cold air
DIARY
Dated and dog-eared and slightly swollen / Ink that ran when the tea cup was too close
SHINE
Something genuine in you does not require the right conditions to glow / Having been through the dark is what makes the light in you believable
PINE
Particular smell of resin after rain / Its cones scattered on the needle floor
AZURE
Above you, a color so open it holds everything without closing / Zones of sky remind you that the limit is not as near as it looks
CORE
Come back to what is fundamental when the rest falls into noise / Only the essential holds when everything peripheral falls away
BOOK
Borrowed from the shelf last winter / Open on the table since Thursday
STONE
Sitting in my hand it holds the river’s story / The grain in it is older than the mountains
DESK
Done with the day and still sitting in the chair / Everything needed somewhere on this surface still
LOVE
Light that follows even into shadow / Often showing up unasked and uninvited
FERN
First green thing before the bluebells come / Even in shade it keeps its deep and satisfied green
CLIFF
Cold and standing above the turning sea / Lined with the nests of birds I cannot name
DOOR
Day ends with the click of a lock / Opening to whatever the evening brings
GUILT
Going back inside the moment to undo / Unable to revise what happened
CALL
Coming to yourself always happens when a true call reaches you / A vocation is a call that you will hear no matter how far you run
WEEP
Weight finally released in water / Every sorrow finds its shape
BOOK
Bent page marking a Tuesday night / Only a hundred pages since last month
SAND
Smooth and cool below the waterline / All the warmth it holds from the long afternoon
ADORE
A love that doesn't calculate the cost / Deep and quiet and entirely free
VALE
Very still when the morning mist is in it / A sheltered fold the hills have made for quiet
REAL
Returning again and again to what is actually true is the honest life / Every illusion, while comfortable, eventually requires more energy to maintain
STONE
Smoother than it was a thousand years ago / The river did this without any hurry
TRAIN
Ticket checked just after sitting down / Rain hitting the window diagonally
OTHER
Out beyond yourself is where the world begins for real / The self alone is incomplete, it longs for the encounter
FEAR
Familiar guest at every new beginning / Each new threshold echoes with your name
CAFE
Cup refilled without being asked here / A long Tuesday afternoon filling itself in
REAL
Reaching past the performed self finds what actually is / Everything genuine costs more than everything pretended
HILL
Here the sky begins before the summit ends / In August the heather turns the slope to purple
STORM
Standing at the window watching it gather / Thunder first then rain then the silence
HOME
Hinge that sounds the same as it always has / On the mat the day’s shoes in a pile
SLEEP
Slow day and the body agreeing early / Later than usual and catching up
SCENT
Sun on the sheets brought in from the line / Cedar in the drawer with the winter things
TREE
Turning toward the light before it understands / Reaching further than the winter said it could
SMILE
Sudden warmth across an unknown face / Moving toward the one who is alone
KIND
Keeping the soft interior available when the world is hard is the practice / In the act of choosing kindness over cleverness, something real happens
DUSK
Done with blue the sky begins its red / Under the ash trees the first moths stir
WARM
Welcome even on the coldest day / Arms that hold without condition
SHINE
Staying bright inside a world that dims you down takes discipline / Having your own source of light means you do not depend on conditions
FIELD
Flat under the August sky it bakes / Insects loud in the seed heads all day
SIGH
Settling into what can't change / Into the exhale, everything releases
SLEEP
Sun already up when the eyes close / Long slow breath and then another
DUSK
Dimming the detail and leaving only outline / Under the last red light the bats appear
LIGHT
Lasting longer than the obstacle, light is the argument for patience / In every tradition, the illuminated path was earned, not given freely
FOND
Finding old warmth in a sudden memory / On the tip of tongue the name of someone dear
MERCY
More than justice asks us to give / Every giving-up of the right to punish
TIDE
Tracing its old path across the sand / In the pools the small crabs wait it out
LIGHT
Lasting longer than the obstacle, light is the argument for patience / In every tradition, the illuminated path was earned, not given freely
DAWN
Deep quiet before a single bird decides / A breath of cold from the open window